Static Study

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School

Brock University

Department

Sociology

Course

SOCI 2F60

Professor

Daniel Glenday

Semester

Fall

Description

 example of descriptive, static study, number of murders in Toronto in 2009
 69. Population in scarborough, 2010, 593, 000 people lived in
scarborough.
 2. Trend  example of trend  divorce rate in Canada from 1952 – 2002
climb from 15% to 50%. Gradually increasing. This is a descriptive trend. It
doesn’t attempt to tell you why divorce rates increase. It just gives you
number  many reasons though. One of the reasons is the women
movement is that women have more independence, economic
independence, and don’t need to be married to survive.
 it is easy to get out of marriage today. At one time divorce was almost impossible to attain
 came with problems. Difficult to find a balance
 Explanatory Studies
o Try to explain why things happen or try to explain relationships between what we
call variables. So for instance, how can we explain university attendance. One of the
best explanations is parent income is associated with university attendance. Higher
the income of parents, the more likely their children are to attend university. That is
explanatory. Parental university and social class of parents is one of the most solid
predictors of university attendance by offspring. Another explanatory study, people
who live in cities, larger the cities, are more likely to commit suicide than people
who live in villages, small towns, or the country side. Infant mortality is related to
wealth. Wealthy people, middle class, upper middle class, infant mortality rates are
lower  more educated, more knowledge, more likely to get prenatal and postnatal
care for children. Mother more likely to be working, can’t spend amount of time
looking after her children and so on.
o Another example, when the economy improves, crime rates go down. A good
economy, with lots of jobs, different social situation, than a poor economy that need
money. Unemployed people can become desperate and more likely to commit crime.
Found to be a consistent cause of crime. One of the reasons why the death penalty
was abolished a few years ago in Canada, parliament abolished it despite the fact
that many people are in favour. Statistics, studies, empirical studies, explanatory
studies have found consistently that the death penalty does not deter, prevent
murder. In US, the state controls the death penalty – whether it has it or not – and
states that have it, their murder rates are not that much different than states that
have the death penalty. Texas for instance, is big on penalty. Observed over time
that death penalty does not deter murder, and many people thought it was good to
abolish it. Those people who are in favour of it, another argument, people that
behave like Cliffard Olsen, child predator, the death penalty represents just
punishment for doing that. Paul Bernado and Karla Homolka
o Cliffard Olson killed 12 childrenoperated in BC, died in prison of cancer.
 Social Accounting
o Both type of studies can be used to develop social policy. You may get job in
provincial governmen